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By ANNE GLEASON, Staff Writer Friday, March 2, 2007

Kennebunk officials are working on a proposed ordinance to regulate "adult" businesses, following a suggestion by Selectman Dan Boothby.

No adult businesses are known to be interested in Kennebunk, but Boothby said he was asked by a few residents to raise the issue this year. The proposal must be aired at a public hearing before the end of April to be on the warrant at June's town meeting.

Boothby said the intention is to get ahead of any problem, though he said adult businesses have looked at Kennebunk in the past.

Town Manager Barry Tibbetts is researching Kennebunk's options for regulating adult businesses and has studied relevant ordinances in Bangor, Gray, Portland, South Portland and Hampton, N.H.

Many municipalities in Maine have ordinances that restrict locations for adult businesses. A few impose outright bans. The more restrictive the ordinance, the more likely it is to be challenged, said Michael Starn, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association.

"There's no black or white, you can do this and you're OK, you can do this and you're not OK," Starn said. "A lot of communities will test the waters and they'll see how far they can go."

Tibbetts said he would like to find a way to ban the businesses without opening the door to legal challenges. Designating a zone for adult businesses in town could create its own challenge, he said. "No one's going to want it in their area."

Biddeford ran into difficulties with a ban in the late 1990s. The measure was challenged in York County Superior Court, where a judge ruled that the ordinance violated the First Amendment.

The city now has an adult-business ordinance requiring a prospective owner to get a license and notify all property owners within 2,000 feet of the business before a public hearing on the proposal.

Bangor, which regulates adult enterprises, weathered a First Amendment challenge to its ordinance in 2003.

Businesses in Bangor that offer nude entertainment must get certificates of occupancy, which involve criminal background checks. The businesses are prohibited within 500 feet of institutions such as schools and churches.

A judge backed the city, saying its ordinance seeks to achieve a legitimate government interest of preventing "harmful secondary effects associated with nude entertainment" and is not overly restrictive in that it provides areas for adult businesses.

While any ordinance can be challenged, Starn said, many communities in Maine have successfully crafted ordinances that simply regulate location.

"When it gets a little tricky is when you try to have an outright ban," Starn said.